


Bouncing Baby Blues

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: lovers from the moon [17]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Breastfeeding, Long-Term Relationship(s), Multi, New Family, Postpartum Depression, Spousal Banter, Vaginal Fingering, but it's a whole new kind of weird, they have been really weird for their whole lives though, this is not even the weirdest thing Kinga's asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 16:40:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17532374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Jonah takes Katalin to the Baby Bounce Storytime at New York Public Library, and Kinga has a request to make of Max while they're alone together. It's weird, but when isn't she weird? It's also the best chance Max has to bring up his concerns about how she's been doing lately.





	Bouncing Baby Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Y'know, once I got the baby on the scene, I figured I would be writing a ton of cute family stuff... but then Kinga made it weird again. Like she always does. 
> 
> I didn't write the baby bounce storytime because they are _mind-numbing_ but I mean, if they're living on Fifth Avenue, they're going to the library a lot. Library funding skyrocketed under the Forrester administration... and Kat likes the lions. Don't come at me about one month being too young for storytime, babies benefit so much from being read to. (*takes off librarian hat*)
> 
> Thanks to NightfireAdamante for helping me polish this up!

"Max?" Kinga called from where she was curled up on the couch. A moment later her husband poked his head out of the kitchen.

"Yes, dear?"

"I have a favor to ask you," she said, and his brows arched.

"Okay," he said, coming to sit next to her on the couch. He was wearing an apron with "cooking is science for hungry people" embroidered across it, liberally dusted with flour and cinnamon. There was a smudge of flour on his left cheek. She hooked a finger under the neck strap and tugged him in to be kissed. "Mm. Hi. What's up?"

"It's weird," she said.

"Par for the course with you."

"Don't make fun of me."

"As if this is something I haven't said a thousand times before?" Her lips twisted to one side as she considered the question, and Max rolled his eyes playfully. "What strange demand do you have to make of me today, my love?"

"I want you to suck on my boobs." He blinked at her, nonplussed for a moment, before his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, come on, don't I have enough weird kinks already? Are you trying to give me a mommy fetish?” His voice was more plaintive than she thought was warranted. “I thought that you hated that I thought you were sexy when you were pregnant..."

"This is for my benefit, not yours,” she huffed.

"Okay, if you say so." Max didn't look any less suspicious.

"Come on, you used to do it before I got knocked up. If it's too weird for you..."

"Oh, as if I ever say no to anything that doesn't literally threaten your life! I'm just..." Max trailed off, shaking his head slightly, not in refusal but in thought.

"What?"

"Neither of us were nursed as babies. I'm just trying to parse the particular level of fucked up that is tasting breast milk for the first time at the age of forty."

"It's not that big a deal," Kinga said, rolling her eyes. "It's not really any weirder than the fact that you bottle fed me as a baby."

"Uh, yeah, that's also really fucking weird, all things considered. Given the, you know, entire trajectory of our shared lives."

"Oh, are we going to list all the reasons we're weird? Come on, Max, I thought we just agreed to call destiny a more compelling reason to be strange than whatever normality would have had in store for us."

"That doesn't mean I can't continue to comment when the weirdness increases," he pointed out. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and his widened. "I'll do it!” he yelped. “I never said I wouldn't do it. Whatever makes you happy, you know that." He sat back to study her for a moment: more pale than usual, freckles standing out starkly on her cheeks; shadows under her eyes that had only deepened in the weeks since Katalin's birth, a melancholy weight in her gaze fixed on him. "It doesn't seem like you've been happy," he added softly.

"I'm fine," she snapped, then blinked like she'd startled herself with the vehemence of her reply. "I'm fine, really," she said again, in a more measured tone, but he'd heard the truth the first time that only reinforced what he'd seen since Katalin was born: she wasn't fine. "I have no reason to be anything other than fine. My baby is healthy, my spouses both adore me, I'm wildly beloved by millions of people."

"You don't need a reason to be not fine," he said gently. "You're allowed to feel whatever you feel, you know that. I just wish you wouldn't lie to me about what those feelings are."

"I said I'm _fine_ ," Kinga insisted, and Max sighed.

"If you say so." He reached up to brush his fingers against her cheek, and she tipped her head into his touch. "So. Was this request an immediate thing, or for future reference?"

"I was hoping for sooner rather than later."

"Were you just waiting for Jonah to take Katalin somewhere without us?"

"It's not like I told him to do it, he wanted to bring her to the library of his own volition. But I might have been hoping to be alone with you for a while, yes." She caught his hand and pressed her lips to his palm. "I just know that you'll handle me the way you always do... with something like reverence."

"Reverence," he echoed dryly. "The implications are uncomfortable, but it's not inaccurate."

"Oh, shut up, it's not even a specifically religious word."

"Well, you do have that whole new mom fertility goddess thing going on."

"Never say that to me again."

"Yeah, it felt weird when I said it. Sorry." Max offered her a lopsided smile and squeezed her hand gently. "So, uh... is this a sex thing or an intimacy thing? I just want to know what you want out of this."

"I have no idea," Kinga said, looking down as she laced her fingers through his. "I don't feel sexy. I haven't felt sexy in months. I feel like it's... like I don't deserve to feel pleasure until I get a handle on what my life has become."

"No offense, but that's really dumb," he said. "If you don't want to have sex, that's fine, neither of us are going to push you into it. But if you feel like you don't _deserve_ it? That's ridiculous."

"I don't feel anything good," she responded, very quietly. "I feel exhausted and worn out and gross and leaky and... not worth the effort—"

"No," he said, reaching up to cover her mouth with his other hand. "I'm not even letting you finish that thought. Of course you are worth the effort, regardless of how much effort that is. Making you happy is my prime objective, and it always has been. You think I haven't noticed that I'm comprehensively failing at it lately?"

"You're not failing me," she said, " _I'm_ failing me. I'm the problem here. My stupid body and my... my evil brain, and..."

"Kinga." She pressed her lips into a thin line, and Max leaned up to kiss her forehead. "You're not failing at anything, my love. You’re even being good about talking about your feelings right now and you’re usually bad at that. Be honest with me for a second?"

"Yeah."

"You thought you would go back to normal after you had the baby, and you haven't... at what point are you going to acknowledge the fact that you have something going on that's going to require intervention to set right?"

"I don't need intervention," she spat. "I just need to get my ability to feel positive emotions back."

"Oh, honey..." Max let go of her hand so he could pull her into his arms, and she made a poorly stifled sound of annoyance into his shoulder. "I'm not saying you have to go on medication or anything. But you really, really should talk to a therapist. The way you feel isn't normal for you and I don't know how to set you right. You need someone who knows what they're doing to help you find your way out of this depression."

"I'm not depressed," she said immediately, knee-jerk as ever.

"Yeah, you are. You definitely have postpartum depression. I'm pretty sure you had prenatal depression, but every time I tried to bring that up you shut me down. Please, please, if you won't look for a therapist yourself I'll talk to Traci and we'll find one for you, but you can't keep going like this." His fingers caressed her hair gently, and he added in a whisper, "I miss you. Come back to me."

She stiffened, anger still the easiest emotion to access, but almost immediately, she slumped into his embrace. "Max... I don't know what I'm doing."

"We're all kind of winging it here."

"Bullshit, you read so many parenting guides that you know exactly what's going on. With the baby and with me."

"I don't need parenting guides to understand you. I've known there's something wrong with you. I just didn't know how to broach the topic to get you to actually engage with it." She sat back, cheeks red with shame at what she perceived as her own weakness, and he offered her a tired smile. "I need two minutes. Meet me in the bedroom?"

In the month since Katalin's birth, their huge bed had been transformed, no longer the site of Kinga's captivity. The massive pillow pile had been reduced now that the Forresters weren't spending all their time in bed hanging out. Kinga got herself settled in the center of the bed and grabbed a pillow to wrap herself around, knees drawn up and arms tight around the pregnancy belly she still hadn’t stopped subconsciously accommodating for, even a month after giving birth. When Max joined her, he'd ditched the apron, but the smudge was still on his cheek.

"I put the cookie dough in the fridge," he said, cuddling up next to her. Her lips twitched, and she licked her thumb and reached up to remove the flour from his face. "So I can stay with you until you decide you’re done with me.”

“I’m never going to be done with you,” she said, deliberately obtuse, and the smile he gave her brought out all of his laughter lines. 

“So what do you need me to do for you? Were you serious about the boob sucking thing, or were you just trying to weird me out?”

“I meant it.” She unfolded from her curled up position and tossed the pillow aside. 

“You never really answered my question about whether this is sexual or about intimacy.”

“I would really be pleased if I _could_ feel sexy again. And you know better than anyone how to make me feel good about myself.” Kinga blinked when he turned to study her intently, adding, “You’ve always been the one to make me feel better when I hate myself.”

“You’re never going to hate yourself more than I love you,” Max breathed, reaching up to cup her cheek. “Ever. I promise.” She closed her eyes and pressed into his hand. “So you want me to make you feel sexy?”

“I don’t want to set an impossible task for you.”

“Well, how about just letting me make you come? Cause I’ve really missed doing that, and I know I can do it pretty easily. You don’t even have to do anything.”

“That’s so lazy, though... You deserve better from me.”

“Ah, no. Come on, you should know this by now, pleasing you is what pleases me. I won’t argue if you’re overcome with desire for me, but you really _can_ just lie back and enjoy it and you don’t have to feel guilty about it.” Kinga opened her eyes to find an unexpectedly earnest expression in Max’s gaze. “Please, let me do this for you. It’s been three and a half months since the last time you let me touch you in a sexy way.”

“Because I’m not sexy any more.”

“Are we going to go on about this all afternoon? You never stopped _being_ sexy. You only stopped _feeling_ sexy. I never wanted you any less, you just didn’t want to be touched like that any more. I was waiting on you to want me back again.”

“You’re biased.”

“Uh, _yeah_? I’m your husband now, that makes my pre-existing bias toward you completely validated. I’m not only allowed but encouraged to consider you the most gorgeous woman on the planet even when you have bedhead and baby spit on your shoulder.” Her hand went up to her shoulder self-consciously, and he caught it and drew it down. “I’m not saying you _do_. But you should take your shirt off even though it isn’t stained.” 

“Yes, I should,” Kinga said, and did, flinging her t-shirt aside but not clearing the wide span of the bed. She looked down and frowned at her floral print nursing bra, peeling one of the cups away with a wince. Max curled his finger under the strap and eased it down her shoulder before kissing where it had been. “You really think I’m the most gorgeous woman on the planet?”

“It was true on the Moon and it’s still true now that we’re here with eight billion other people.” He drew the other strap down and kissed the hinge of her jaw. Shivering, she tilted her head away, and he dragged his lips down the side of her neck and bit at her shoulder. “I learned to love by loving you, you know.”

“Steep learning curve,” she said, shifting to let him reach behind her and unhook her bra. He always looked thunderstruck at the sight of her breasts these days, like he’d forgotten what they looked like, like the difference was so striking that he couldn’t get his mind around it. They looked lopsided now, one breast soft and flat, one perfectly round and glistening at the nipple. “You overcompensated.”

“Oh, is that what I did?” He shifted around to lay his head in her lap, one hand coming up to gently caress her round breast, finding it firm to the touch. She smirked down at him.

“Well, you definitely don’t love me a rational or proportional amount.”

“Rational, ha. As if anything about our lives is actually rational, or ever has been. And what do you mean proportional? You were literally the only person I’d ever loved a year ago, what proportion of all of my love is correct to give you?”

“You love too much. More than I deserve.”

“I disagree. I think I love you just the right amount, which is unconditionally.” He thumbed her nipple and his eyes widened. “You weren’t kidding about being leaky. Here...” She frowned until he lifted his head from her lap to catch her nipple between his lips, as gentle as he liked which was never as gentle as she let him stay when he did this before. She’d always been fond of having her breasts bitten and bruises sucked into them, but he wasn’t about to allow her to goad him into leaving a mark on her now. Her fingers carded through his curls as his tongue laved her nipple, not entirely sure what to do in order to do as she wanted from him.

“No… not like that,” she said, giving his hair a tug when he didn’t figure it out after a couple of tentative suckles. “Use your tongue.”

“I _am_ using my tongue,” he said, wrinkling his nose as he looked up at her. She rolled her eyes.

“Well, use it _differently_.” 

“I’ve never done this before in my life! Are you going to let me figure it out or are you going to heckle me?”

“I don’t see why they have to be mutually exclusive.” Max blinked at her and then dropped his head against her breast with a laugh. “Ow! No, stop, that one is too full, that’s the problem.”

“Oh, well, you could have just _said_ that in the first place, you know. Didn’t you nurse before Jonah took Kat?” 

“Only one side. She wouldn’t take the other nipple. And it’s _uncomfortable_.”

“Kinga, sweetie, this is when it’s time to use your words. Explaining that when you asked me in the first place would have helped.”

“Shut up and put your lips back on me.”

“Whatever you want, my love.” Well, he hadn’t expected her to become any less confusing after she added motherhood to her list of defining traits, and she’d always been arbitrary and demanding. At least now he knew what was going on. That didn’t give him any better of an idea what to do when he took her nipple back into his mouth, but she didn’t keep heckling him and it only took a minute before a squirt of milk splashed across his tongue and Kinga let out a gasp that sounded mostly like pain. 

“Oh, _ow_. Don’t stop! Good ow. But _ow_.” He settled his hand on her waist and kept doing what he’d just done. She petted his hair in encouragement, and Max let his eyes close to help him focus on the strange, unprecedented situation they found themselves in and the complex taste of her milk that he simply didn’t have the vocabulary to describe. “Oh, that feels so much better,” she sighed after a minute of scratching her nails through his curls to hold him to her breast. He made a questioning sound. “Yeah, you can stop now.”

“Okay,” he said, but ran his tongue over her nipple one more time before he let his head fall back into her lap. “Is that all you wanted?”

“Well, it _was_ , but it isn’t any more…” She bit her lip, looking down at him, and he smiled up at her.

“Did that feel good? Are you back on board with letting yourself feel pleasure?”

“I’m enjoying your attention,” she said, and he decided to let her get away with not answering his questions. 

“That’s a good start, then. Still want me to get you off?” He hooked two fingers in the waist of her pajama pants and gave them a tug.

“Yeah, could you maybe…” She trailed off, and he tried not to sigh.

“Use your words, Kinga. Please.”

“Could you go down on me? I miss that a lot but I’ve been… kind of scared that it won’t feel the same.”

“Of course I can. Gladly.” He rearranged himself on the bed to pull her remaining clothes down her legs. She pressed her knees together and he very gently urged them apart. “Come on, it’ll be fine. Even if it doesn’t feel exactly the same, that doesn’t mean I don’t know how you like to be touched.”

“I know… that’s what I’m counting on.” As soon as she spread her legs he moved to lie between them, hands stroking her thighs softly and drawing a sigh from her. “Thank you, Max,” she added, very quietly. 

“You’re welcome.” He kissed her left thigh and bit her gently, and she shivered. “You’re always welcome.” Her right thigh got a kiss and a bite to match, and he slid his hands underneath her to squeeze her ass and pull her into a better position for him to do as she’d asked. “You are always, endlessly, eternally welcome to ask me for anything you’d like me to do for or with you.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I’m exactly what you deserve, you beautiful lunatic.” 

Her response was lost in a whimper when he leaned in to lap at her, back to knowing just what to do with his tongue instead of fumbling around to fill her request of him. She tossed her head and dug her fingers into his hair, not to guide him but to play with his curls while he explored her with his mouth. 

“Oh… it _does_ feel different,” she said after a moment, surprise coloring her voice. “But not in a bad way. It feels… _more_ , I guess? Like the sensation’s been turned up to eleven.” 

“Good,” he said without lifting his head, voice muffled into her skin, and circled her clit with the tip of his tongue until she shivered and clutched at him. He’d always loved doing this for her, focusing on nothing but the pleasure he gave her until she decided that she’d had enough to be satisfied, all of his senses attuned to nothing but Kinga, soft skin and tart flavor and the heavy, delicious scent of her arousal permeating every breath he took, her gasps and cries ringing in his ears guiding him in drawing more of them from her. She was less wet than he expected when he tested her with a fingertip, and he set about fixing that directly, parting her folds with two fingers to lick into her center.

“Ahhh, that’s— that’s really good,” she breathed, “oh, keep doing that for a minute? Mm.” Her hips canted up as he thrust his tongue into her, and her fingers tightened in his hair. “Oh, wow, yeah, that’s different.” It took a bit more coaxing than it used to for her body to get with the picture, but it wasn’t long before she demanded, “Give me your fingers now.” He lifted his head to watch her reaction as he pressed a finger into her, but she scowled. “ _More_ of them, come on.”

“Yes, dear.” He went right to three, knowing how she liked to escalate, but she gasped in discomfort and he pulled them out and stuck them in his mouth first, getting them good and wet before pushing them back in to a much more appreciative moan. She let her head fall back on the pillows. “How’re you feeling?”

“Good… I feel good.” She sounded startled to realize it. “I feel like… like my body is starting to make sense again.”

“There we go,” he cooed. “That’s a good first step.”

“I knew you’d be able to help,” she said softly, brushing her fingers against his cheek. “You always do.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” he said cheerfully, turning to kiss her fingers before lowering his head again to the task of getting her off. She dug her fingers back into his hair and let herself melt back as he worked her over the way he’d done so many times before their lives had changed so drastically. 

Her tells, at least, hadn’t changed at all: the pitch of her cries rose and her hand tightened painfully in his curls to yank him into her as she came, one foot digging into his side. The sting of her taking her pleasure from him was electrifying, shivering through his nerves as she went lax and let go of him with a moan. “Oh, _Max_ …”

“God, I’ve missed you saying my name like that,” he said as he lifted his head, before sticking his fingers back into his mouth to suck them clean. She whimpered. “I’ve missed _doing_ that.”

“I’ve missed you doing it,” she admitted, and crooked her finger to beckon him up. He rearranged himself to lie against her side, and she caught his mouth in a sweet, lazy, sated kiss. 

“Do you feel better now?”

“Mmhm.” She wriggled a little until she could settle her head on his chest. 

“Good. That’s all I wanted.” 

“Are you sure?” she asked, one hand settling between his legs to find him just as hard as she knew he’d be, and he inhaled sharply.

“Yes, actually.” She traced a fingertip up and down his length, and he kissed her hair. “You never could leave well enough alone.”

“Not once in my life,” she agreed, and went to stick her hand inside his pants before the sound of Jonah’s voice made her pause.

“Gosh, Kat, where did Mama and Dada go?” A moment later he stuck his head through the bedroom door and his brows arched at the sight of his naked wife wrapped around his clearly aroused husband. “Oh. Am I late to the party?” 

“Fashionably so,” Max said with a laugh. Jonah came into the room wearing Katalin strapped to his chest in the carrier he’d decided was his favorite way to tote her around, and unholstered the baby intending to put her in the bassinet, which he discovered was full of cat. 

“She’s getting a little fussy,” he said as he cradled her in one arm instead, and Kinga sighed and sat up, holding her arms out.

“Give her,” she demanded.

“You sure?” Jonah asked, eyeing Kinga’s bare body, and she rolled her eyes.

“She doesn’t care if I’m naked. Hand her over.”

“Yes, dear.” While Kinga got Kat situated on her breast, Jonah kicked off his shoes and joined his spouses on the bed. “So… what did I miss?” he asked in a highly invested tone, settling a hand high on Max’s thigh.

“Manual attitude adjustment,” Max said. Jonah snorted.

“No, that’s accurate,” Kinga said. “I felt bad, Max touched me in all the right ways, I feel less bad now.”

“Well, that would have been a useful method to have had available while you were stuck on bed rest,” Jonah said lightly. Kinga’s nose wrinkled. “Oh, sorry, are we still not making jokes about that?”

“It’s not really a joke,” Max said.

“I’d appreciate not making me feel bad about how bad I felt,” Kinga said, voice still lazy but expression gone tense. Max elbowed Jonah gently.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to,” Jonah said, and he leaned over Max to smooch Kinga’s hair. “Does this mean you’re back to being touchable? I miss you being touchable.”

“I think so,” she said. “I hope so. I’ve missed being touchable, too.” She looked down at Kat, running her fingers gently over the baby’s downy hair. “So, how’d she do at storytime?”

“I think she liked it,” Jonah said. “She was very enthusiastic about the bouncing. I brought home some board books to read with her, and one of the storytime books.”

“The two shelves we have already aren’t enough?” Kinga asked.

“There’s no such thing as enough books,” Max said, shifting ticklishly under Jonah’s fingers moving back and forth over his inner thigh. “Ah, please don’t tease me…”

“Who’s teasing?” Jonah asked. “This isn’t teasing. This is gauging interest levels.”

“Interest levels are high,” Max said, lashes fluttering when Jonah moved his hand to where Max really wanted it to be. 

“Yeah, I figured,” Jonah said with a laugh in his voice, “sorry that I interrupted the two of you, except not sorry at all really.”

“You could have been five minutes later and I would have been happy with that,” Kinga said. “Not that I’m ever complaining about watching the two of you together, but it’s been so long since I participated, and it’s hard to give a hand job and breastfeed at the same time, and I was looking forward to getting him off.”

“I mean, if you’re really invested in being the one to get him off, I can just toy with him until Kat’s had her fill and you put her down,” Jonah said, and Max whimpered as Jonah playfully danced his fingers against his cock.

“See, this is why I love you. You’re a problem-solver,” Kinga said. 

“And you’re a problem-starter,” Max said. “And caught between the two of you is _exactly_ where I want to be.”


End file.
